To my knowledge, you have no choice but to provide your own UIBarButtonItem. You are not permitted from interrupting how UINavigationController works by default. That is, you cannot override the behavior of the back button. You must provide a custom bar button item and set it as the navigation item's left bar button item.
(As a side note, the sort of behavior you're looking for may be an indication of a poor navigation pattern. Back buttons should almost always back out of a navigation hierarchy sequentially.)